With the declaration of Initial Services Galileo is moving from a global satellite navigation system in testing, to a live, operational service.
For the first time, European satellites are providing users with global positioning, navigation and timing information. In the lead up to Galileo Initial Services, many forward-looking companies have created Galileo-enabled receivers, chipsets and modules – many of which are already available on the market.
Today, more than 30 companies produce Galileo-ready chips. Regarding the smartphone market, there are more than 20 manufacturers which have already started to produce Galileo enabled models. These companies include:
- Key chipset manufacturers like u-blox, Broadcom, Mediatek and Intel.
- STM, a leading European chipset manufacturer in the automotive sector, has announced Galileo-ready “Teseo” chips for vehicle telematics and navigation systems.
- Qualcomm, the market leader for smartphone chips such as Snapdragon, has already built Galileo into its devices, meaning that many smartphones are Galileo-ready
In the consumer market:
- The first European Galileo enabled smartphone was designed by Spanish technology company BQ. Nowadays, there are more than 70 Galileo smartphones on the market.
- As of 2018, Galileo is found in every new type-approved vehicle sold in Europe, thereby enabling the eCall emergency response system (https://ec.europa.eu/luxembourg/news/112-ecall-becomes-mandatory-new-types-vehicles_fr).
You can find up-to-date information on all available Galileo-enabled products at www.useGalileo.eu.